Applications of Genetically Engineered Bacteria,Clavibacter Xyli, Pseudomonas Fluorescens, P. Flurescens,Rhizobium Melilotii, Fungal Diseases

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Home >> Industrial and Microbial Biotechnology >> Microbes and Microbial Genomics for Industry >> Applications of Genetically Engineered Bacteria

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Applications of Genetically Engineered Bacteria
A variety of micro-organisms, particularly bacteria, have been modified through the techniques of genetic engineering to meet specific needs. These genetically engineered bacteria, have found applications in areas including the following: (i) crop production and protection through biological control of insects, fungal diseases, frost damage, etc., (ii) biodegradation of xenobiotics (waste from non-biological systems) and toxic waste transformations, (iii) production of fuels and chemicals including antibiotics, enzymes and diagnostics and (iv) extraction of metals from ores. Applications of this technology will ultimately release beneficial agents in the environments.

It is hoped that if safely deployed, genetically modified bacteria should be able to provide significant benefits in the management of environment systems. Some examples of these genetically engineered bacteria will be briefly discussed in this section.

Crop production and protection
Several bacterial strains have been modified by introduction of foreign genes to control insects (by production of endotoxins), fungal diseases (by production of chitinases, which suppress fungal flora in the soil), or frost damage (through production of mutants for ice nucleation gene or ice+ responsible for frost damage). Deleterious bacteria and fungi or their effects have been controlled in some cases by using a variety of approaches, which include the followting: (i) production of avirulent mutant of the pathogen and releasing it to compete with the virulent strains; (ii) production of antibiotic producing strains of plant associated bacteria to control pathogen through antibiotic production or (iii) production of bacterial strains that will degrade the toxin produced by the pathogen.

There are also other positive measures, where the N2 fixing efficiency of Rhizobia can be enhanced by transfer of useful nif gees and other related genes involved in nodulation, nitrogenase activity and other related functions. Some examples of these genetically engineered bacteria for the possible increase in crop production and protection.

Biodegradation of xenobiotics and toxic wastes
Bacteria can be modified genetically to develop catabolic pathways for degradation of xenobiotics (waste from nonbiological systems) and other waste material. Bacterial genes for this purpose are isolated from bacterial strains (or their plasmids) founds at waste sites. Most of these genes are available from gram-negative bacteria (e.g. Pseudomonas spp.), which are themselves not very efficient degraders, since multiple genes may sometimes be needed for efficient biodegradation. Therefore, for efficient biodegradation, efficient degraders have to be prepared through genetic engineering and they need to be established in the environment at a required density. Some of the genetically engineered bacterial strains for biodegradation of waste material.

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Genetically engineered bacteria in crop production and crop protection

	Bacterium	Altered trait	Possible use
1	Clavibacter xyli	Transfer of B. thuringiensis delta endotoxin gene	Control of corn ear worm
2	Pseudomonas fluorescens	Transfer of Serratia marcescens chitinase gene	Control of fungal disease
3	P. fluorescens, P. syringae	Delection of ‘ice’ gene	Control of frost damage
4	P. fluorescens	Addition of lac ZY	Assessment of movement of bacteria for biological control (‘take all disease’ of wheat)
5	A. radiobacter	Delection of ‘tra’ gene of Agrocin 84 plasmid	Biological control of crown gall
6	Rhizobium melilotii	Additional copies of ‘nif’ gene	Increased efficiency of N2 fixation

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A list of genetically engineered bacteria used for degradation of xenobiotics and toxic wastes

	Bacterium	Substrate that can be degraded
1	Psedomonas capacia	2, 4, 5 – trichloro – phenoxyacetic acid
2	P. putida & other spp (also E. coli)	2, 2, 5 – dichloro – propionate; mono and dichloroaromatics
3	Alcaligenes sp.	Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid; mixed chlorophenols; 1,4 – dichlorobenzene
4	Acinetobacter sp.	4-chlorobenzene

Production of chemical and fuels Recombinant DNA technology is also having a significant impact on microbial production of chemicals and fuels. Following are some of the examples of this utility: (i) genetically engineered strains of Bacillus amyloliquifaciens and Lactobacillus casei have been prepared for production of amino acids on a large scale; (ii) industrially useful bacteria can utilize cheaper feedstocks (substrates) like D-xylulose, lignocellulose or cellulose; for instance, Zymomonas mobilis (normally incapable of using lactose) carrying cellulase gene from Cellulomonas uda has six fold increase in cellulase activity; (iii) E. coli and Klebsiella planticola carrying genes from Z. mobilis could utilize glucose and xylose to give maximum yield of ethanol; (iv) genes for thermophilic (tolerant of high temperature) enzymes have been isolated from thermophiles like Bacillus stearothermophilus, B. licheniformis and Dictyglomus thermophilum and placed in E.coli, so that these modified strains can be used for the synthesis of thermophilic enzymes for commercial use.

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